This policy establishes compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for academic and graduate hourly appointments at the university and describes parameters for their employment.
This policy applies to all individuals holding academic or graduate hourly appointments at the university.
Illinois Human Resources
Requirements:
A baccalaureate degree is required for an appointment to either academic or graduate hourly appointment(s). Additionally, graduate hourly appointments require enrollment as a student according to Graduate College guidelines. Academic hourly appointments must be determined by Illinois Human Resources (IHR) to have satisfied the criteria for civil service exemption under the State Universities Civil Service Act and associated procedures. If a position meets the criteria for either academic hourly or graduate hourly employment classification, the appointment should be classified as graduate hourly.
Expectations:
Academic and graduate hourly appointments have no guaranteed or set work schedule and may be discontinued at any time. Such appointments are generally to be used for emergent, temporary, and/or fluctuating employment needs.
FLSA status:
Individuals on academic or graduate hourly appointments are considered nonexempt from the FLSA. Hours worked over 40 hours per week must be paid overtime. Therefore, all academic and graduate hourly appointments including hourly appointments added to percentage appointments are subject to overtime pay. If an individual works more than 40 hours per week, the hours in excess of 40 hours are paid as overtime at the rate of time and one-half.
Multiple appointments:
In the case of an employee or graduate student holding a percentage appointment as well as an hourly appointment, total hours per week must be kept for both the percentage appointment and the hourly appointment, and any time worked in excess of 40 hours per week must be paid at the hourly overtime rate. Departments and units are responsible for keeping accurate records of hours worked and submitting the correct information to payroll.
Employees may hold multiple academic hourly or graduate hourly appointments from one or more departments. Employees with multiple appointments are expected to inform each of their units of their current work schedules to facilitate accurate time reporting and avoid unanticipated, unapproved overtime. Units set internal procedures for advance approval of overtime.
Employees with academic or graduate hourly appointments must be paid based on actual hours worked. Lump sum payments are not permitted for academic hourly or graduate hourly employees, and all compensation must reflect documented hours of service performed.
Time reporting:
The time reporting increment for academic and graduate hourly employees is tenths of an hour. Time worked and any applicable benefit usage is rounded to the nearest tenth of an hour.
The university uses academic hourly appointments code to record and pay time for salaried non-exempt employees in other classifications. Such appointments hold the position class code FLSA and are associated with an otherwise overtime-exempt position that does not meet the salary threshold to be a salaried, exempt position.
In the rare instance that a civil service employee holds an academic or gradate hourly appointment, the workweek and overtime policies of their civil service classification supersede these.
Illinois Human Resources, ihr-compensation@illinois.edu, (217) 333-2136